[GTALUG] Mini PC for Home Office?

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: phiscock at ee.ryerson.ca

| I'm considering the Zotac and Asus mini-pcs for the basis of a home-office
| system.

I have a few of these.  Low-end versions.

I'm not sure that they are the optimal choice for your use.  It
depends on what things matter to you.

I might well be focusing more on price than you would.  For me, it is
part of the game.

- ones with real CPUs (i3 or better) are not that cheap

- I have old ones with older Atoms (Acer Revos).  Great for the time,
  but not now.

- I have a Zotac with an AMD E350.  Better than old Atoms, but
  limiting.

- I have Zotacs based on Celerons (847 and 1007).  Those have
  non-trivial crunch, but not main-stream crunch.  I run more-or-less
  current Fedora on them.

- they generally take notebook components (RAM, HDD / SSD) which seems
  OK but has its quirks.

- you can buy them bare-bones or populated.

In some ways, you might be better off buying a carefully select
notebook that you leave closed.  Perhaps cheaper for the same crunch.
The packaging isn't as nice.  Also: might take some hunting.

The Intel NUC is another to consider.  Also Gigabyte Brix.

Here's a random example of a Zotac Zbox bare-bones with a Haswell
(non-Atom) Celeron:
<http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173102CVF&cm_re=zotac_zbox-_-56-173-102CVF-_-Product>
I'm not sure, but I think that Haswell is a win over even the pretty
good new generation of Atoms.
Note: I have not carefully selected this to be a good choice.

Here's a Bix based on a Celeron of the Atom family:
<http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164017&cm_re=gigabyte_brix-_-56-164-017-_-Product>
It might be quieter than the Haswell-based Zotac.  Notice details like
that there is only one SODIMM slot.

If the stars align (actually if the holes align) sometimes you can mount 
the little box on the back of the monitor.  The key is "vesa" mounting 
holes.  Only some monitors have them.  Only some little boxes have 
brackets to fit on them.  I've only done that once.